Many people feel like they live in chaos because they don’t take the time to organize their personal belongings. Unfortunately, when you spend a lot of time searching for things that you can’t find, your productivity tends to fall.
Furthermore, your overall quality of life declines because you feel more stressed out and anxious. People who “live in chaos” also tend to be less healthy as well.
Luckily, you can decrease your stress level and boost your productivity by following these simple tips to organize every aspect of your life.
Start By Cleaning House
You can’t organize your life when you keep all of your personal belongings in a disorganized mess. You should care enough about your possessions to properly take care of them – which includes organizing them. That way you know exactly where things are when you need them.
However, one reason that so many people don’t organize their stuff better is because they have too much stuff to being with. Therefore, you should start by cleaning your house and getting rid of all the things that you don’t need.
You should literally look at each item and decide whether or not you really need it. When you come across something that you haven’t used in a long time, seriously consider getting rid of it.
Many people get rid of their unwanted items by having a yard sale. You can also donate old items to thrift stores or local organizations that help the needy. If you come across something valuable, you might try selling it on eBay.
Don’t forget to go through all of your closets and storage buildings, as well as your garage, basement and attic. The goal is to do away with all unnecessary clutter from your life.
Develop Regular Cleaning Routines
When people live in filth, they tend to be less healthy and more anxious. Therefore, in addition to keeping your home free of unnecessary clutter, you need to clean it on a regular basis too. That means dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing floors, and washing windows, and all those other fun chores that you love putting off doing.
However, you don’t have/need to clean your entire house on the same day. Instead, schedule different cleaning chores on different days to spread out all the housework. Living in a clean environment will help you feel more relaxed and happy.
Organize Important Documents
When it comes to organizing your life, you can’t forget about important documents for your household:
- Birth Certificates
- Social Security Cards
- Passports
- Marriage License
- Property Deeds
You need to secure all of your household’s important documents in a safe place where you can readily find them when needed. Ideally, you could keep them in a home safe. However, a small filing cabinet would be a good option too.
Invest in Home Organizers
Speaking of filing cabinets, you should consider buying some good home organizers to help organize your home. Organizers can maximize the amount of space you have to hold things in a neatly manner. Here are some common home organizers that many households use:
- Shoe and Closet Organizers
- Pegboard Kits
- Storage Furniture
- Stackable Storage Containers
- File Organizers
- Cleaning Caddy to Store Cleaning Supplies
Plan Each Day
Organizing your life is also about organizing your time so you can spend it more productively. Planning your day will make you feel less stressed and less crunched for time.
You’ll also find that you can get more things done – and have more free time to enjoy the things that you like doing for fun. You can organize your days by creating a schedule in an old-school daily planner or in your phone’s calendar app. If you use a calendar app, you can get text/email reminders about all of the things that you have scheduled to do that day.
When you create a daily schedule, you should designate a specific amount of time to do each task to keep you on track for getting everything done.
Organize Your Office or Workspace
Having an unorganized office or workspace is not only bad for your productivity at work, it’s bad for your stress level as well. While a lot of work-related documents are now saved as digital files, many employees still deal with a lot of paperwork.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for things to get out of control at work if you don’t have a good system for organizing your paperwork. Make sure that you have file folders – and create labels for your file folders.
The best way to store your folders is in a filing cabinet. You can either organize them alphabetically or by category – whichever makes it easier to find paperwork quickly. Try to keep your desk clean and free of unnecessary clutter too.
Use Exercise to Keep Your Mind Clear
Even a short period of high-intensity exercise a couple of times a week does wonders. Raising the heart rate and burning some calories helps clear the mind and retain a fresh perspective.
Whether it’s running, cross-fit exercise, riding a Peleton, or swimming at night, there are advocates who swear by the benefits of exercise for less mental “clutter.”
Organize Your Digital Files
As mentioned above, many work-related documents are now saved on computers. However, just because those files might be digital, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to organize them.
In fact, you can waste a lot of time searching for documents on your computer. Furthermore, it’s really easy to let your email inbox get out of control if you don’t take the time to read and delete messages each day. Here are some tips on how to organize your digital documents:
- Check email messages when you first get to work. Delete unimportant messages. Highlight messages that you need to save or respond to later.
- Organize the documents on your computer into folders according to their category. For example, finance, marketing, sales, etc.
- Periodically delete old documents from your computer if you no longer need them.
In short, becoming more productive means organizing both your personal and work life. You can start by organizing your personal belongings – and getting rid of the things that you don’t need.
Make your home a clean and relaxed place to live. Secure all of your personal documents in a place that you can easily find them. Buy some home organizers to neatly hold your stuff.
Make the most of each day by planning your daily tasks. Make sure that you organize your office/workspace to increase your productivity at work.
Lastly, your computer is meant to make you more productive at work. Therefore, make the most of that productivity by using it to organize your digital documents in a way that makes them highly accessible.